The long-awaited Vision of the Arts sculpture was delivered and set in place in front of the Granville Arts Center Friday, Sept. 7. Patty Granville, Director of the Garland Center for the Performing Arts since its 1982 opening, talked with joy about what the sculpture means to the city.
“I think it’s a monumental day for the city of Garland and the arts, especially the visual arts,” she said. “This is something we’ve been working on since 2014 when a committee began to look for sculptors.”
The committee brought in Barvo Walker in 2015. The Dallas-based sculptor had done other such notable sculptures as the Goddess of Liberty that sits atop the capitol in Austin and his work is featured internationally in China and Egypt.
“Everyone knew of him and thought his work was great, so the Cultural Arts Commission talked with him to let him know what they wanted, which was to see the diversity of Garland and the variety of the arts,” Granville said. “He came back with several designs and this one was picked unanimously.”
The process began with the committee taking a maquette to City Council for approval. From there, a lengthy and complicated creation process began.
Granville said that she learned more about sculpting than she thought possible. She added that when one sees the process they understand the amount of time involved.
“When I saw it roll up today, it was a giant sense of relief,” she s
aid. “It’s a really awesome feeling.”
Granville also said that looking at the beauty and detail in the finished product was amazing.
“I think this is going to be a destination sculpture,” she said. “I think people will come here just to see it and have their picture taken in front of it, especially if they are a dancer, a musician, a theater person. This is something that really makes a statement for Garland. It’s bringing all the arts together and it shows the ethnic diversity of the arts. It’s not just a piece of sculpture.”
A fundraiser for the project was that individuals could pay for their likenesses to be a part of the sculpture and this makes it unique to this community.
“This means a lot to us,” Granville said. “We’ve got faces of so many people in the community that bought faces on the sculpture, so not only do you see those faces, you see the ethnicity of everything represented and the various arts.”
A few of the people featured on the sculpture include the late Linda Brownlee, Woody Brownlee, the Honorable Ronald Jones, DeeAnne Driver, Hamp Holcomb, Patty Montagno Smith, Bill Dollar, Martin Glenn and Patty Granville.
An official dedication and reception will be held October 7 at the entrance of the Granville Arts Center, 300 North Fifth Street. The Garland Cultural Arts Commission, Inc. invites residents to celebrate with a wine and cheese reception from 2 to 4 p.m.
One of the sculptor’s next commissions is for the city of Dallas. He will be creating a sculpture to honor the police officers who were killed in the line of duty in downtown Dallas July 7, 2016.